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/ 26 February 2008
Americans will have to cope without blended Frappuccino and blueberry coffee cake for a few hours on Tuesday as Starbucks shuts its 7 100 company-owned stores for a nationwide barista training session. Starbucks has ordered the unprecedented three-hour afternoon closure as part of an effort to improve coffee quality.
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/ 26 February 2008
French President Nicolas Sarkozy sharply criticised the chairperson of scandal-hit bank Société Générale in an interview published on Tuesday, saying his response to billion-euro losses was "not normal". "When the president of a company sees losses of that magnitude and does not draw conclusions from it, that’s not normal," Sarkozy said.
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/ 26 February 2008
Simon Mann, the suspected British mastermind of a failed 2004 coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, has yet to have any date set for his trial, the country’s defence minister said on Monday. ”There is no date fixed but, as we have already said, we want [the trial] to take place quickly,” Antonio Obama Ndong said.
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/ 26 February 2008
The United Nations on Monday warned that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a ”new face of hunger”. ”We will have a problem in coming months,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme.
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/ 26 February 2008
Last week, the government threatened to disband the Media Council of Kenya after the group announced that it would survey media conduct in the East African nation, including over the December 27 elections that have sparked widespread violence. Kwamboka Oyaro spoke to Peter Mutie, chair of the council’s ethics and publicity subcommittee
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/ 25 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is not conducting a forensic audit into empowerment deals and tenders that were received by its investment company, Chancellor House, the party said on Monday. ”The ANC wishes to place on record that it is neither conducting an investigation nor a forensic audit into the company or any of its transactions.”
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/ 25 February 2008
Potential job losses due to the energy crisis are not cast in stone, Gold Fields CEO Ian Cockerill said in a conference call on Monday. Earlier, the mining company announced that 6 900 jobs were at risk because of Eskom’s power rationing. ”We’re working closely with the unions to calculate potential losses. There is nothing cast in stone,” Cockerill said.
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/ 25 February 2008
Police dogs in the German city of Düsseldorf are being fitted out with blue rubber shoes to protect their paws while walking the beat. ”The dogs aren’t too keen yet, but with a few weeks’ training they should be used to them,” Andre Hartwich, a spokesperson for police in the western city, said on Monday.
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/ 25 February 2008
Springbok and Stormers flank Schalk Burger was found guilty of an ”act contrary to good sportsmanship” by a judicial committee in Cape Town on Monday after gesticulating to referee’s assistant Willie Roos in Saturday’s Super 14 match against the Sharks in Durban. Sentence has been deferred to Tuesday.
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/ 25 February 2008
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is to hold a public forum on complaints of racial prejudice against the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) and the issue of exclusive organisations. This stems from last Friday’s controversial FBJ meeting addressed by African National Congress president Jacob Zuma in Johannesburg.